(Morcster Chef) Trustworthy River - Ch. 85 (Patreon)

The room fell silent. Malissa remained in a fighting stance and backed away from the river, her daggers still raised defensively. Belmont jogged over to Ming and helped the mage to her feet. He raised a hand over the wound and healed it with a bath of delicate pink light.

“Before you say something, don’t worry. I’m not going to sit around and watch my friends get hurt, even if I’m not fighting all the time,” Arek said, striding over to rip his cleaver free of the monster’s skull. “Besides, at some point, you’re going to need a fourth member who’s strong enough to keep up with you. I’ve been in higher level dungeons, and you’re not going to clear them with three people. If I never do anything, you’ll pass me up without a problem. I need to learn how to control myself and I don’t like fighting, but it’s worth it to protect my party.”

“What about your rune thing, though?” Ming asked, frowning. “You said you lose control of yourself. You don’t need to do that for us.”

“I need to learn to control it if I ever want to have a future,” Arek said. “I’m coasting by right now, but the rarest ingredients are in high level dungeons. If we’re going to make it through those, I can’t be a useless tagalong.”

“We’ll support whatever you think is right,” Malissa said with a kind smile. “We just want you to be comfortable.”

“I agree. We should attempt to quantitatively test how much you can control yourself so something doesn’t go awry within a dungeon,” Belmont said.

“Thank you,” Arek said. “I’ve said, this, but I really do appreciate your kindness.”

Belmont grunted and shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. He kept his suspicious gaze trained on the river.

“For now, we have more pressing matters. The second fishman near the door never attacked us, but its gone now. It must have slipped into the river while we were fighting.”

Belmont kicked a stone into the river, not lowering his weapons even slightly in the process. It splashed into the algae and sank. Nothing emerged.

“It’s hiding,” Malissa said. “Probably going to attack us when we try to get over the river.”

“Do you think there are more of them down there?” Arek asked, peering into the water without getting too close to it. The greenish water was so cloudy that it was impossible to make out any details below its surface.

“It’s possible,” Belmont said. “We have no way to know for sure.”

“Sitting around isn’t going to help us either,” Malissa said. “I say I jump the river while you protect me. Maybe we can bait out their attack.”

“It won’t stop them from grabbing you and pulling you under,” Belmont replied, shaking his head.

“Well, do you have a better idea?”

“Maybe we could burn the algae on the top of the water,” Belmont offered. “That might make it easier to see inside it.”

“I don’t think I’ve got nearly enough oil for that,” Arek said.

“I could fly over the river,” Ming offered.

“That just puts you on the other side with no way for us to get there,” Belmont said. “Not to mention you aren’t supposed to fly.”

Ming crossed her arms and pouted.

“I think my method is the best,” Malissa said. “We bait the fishman into attacking, then Ming can blast it when it goes for me. It shouldn’t have enough time to pull me under.”

Belmont’s lips thinned and he unknowingly mimicked Ming’s posture by crossing his arms. He paced around the dry side of the room for a few moments, then threw his hands up and let out an annoyed sigh.

“Fine. But I don’t like it.”

“It’ll be fine,” Malissa said. Belmont just grimaced and wordlessly raised his staff, nodding to indicate he was ready.

Malissa drew her daggers and backed up several steps to get some distance between herself and the river.

“You ready, Ming?”

The small mage nodded. Malissa erupted forwards and leapt into the air. A pink shield flashed into existance below. It shattered almost instantly as a trident punched upwards out of the water like a bolt of lightning. The attack was far faster than the previous ones the fishmen had made.

Malissa landed on the bank on the other side of the river. A fishman burst forth from the river behind her and lunged at the woman’s back. A bolt of pure magic slammed into it, staggering the creature. Before it could recover, Malissa turned and drove a dagger into the side of its head. It slumped to the ground at her side.

“See?” Malissa said. “Worked no problem.”

Belmont waved his hand hurriedly.

“Get away from the –”

A huge green creature erupted from the depths. It was similar to the fishmen, but several times larger and covered in rotting yellow and green algae. It lashed out with a slimy hand and grabbed the tall woman by the waist. Then it turned, only pausing for an instant to stare at them with its dead yellow eyes, before jumping back into the river and taking Malissa along with it.

Arek and Belmont sprinted to the edge of the river. The orc’s vision went a dull red as logical thought was pushed from the front of his mind. He threw his pack off as he ran and the two of them leapt in. The water was so murky that it was practically impossible to see more than a few inches in front of their nose. Arek, no longer aware of where Belmont was, swam downwards as hard as he could.

By some stroke of luck, a dull roar of pain echoed underwater, slightly off to Arek’s right. The orc swam towards it. The gruesome visage of the huge fishman appeared out of nowhere from the murky waters. Blood floated around it like a faint red halo.

Malissa’s dagger stuck out of the front of the monster’s chest. Arek couldn’t see Malissa or the monster’s arms. He dove deeper, reaching out and grabbing the dagger to pull himself closer. A flurry of bubbles escaped the creature’s mouth as it let out a scream of pain.

It’s arms swung out from the stained water around the orc, wrapping around Arek and starting to squeeze tight. Arek snarled and twisted the knife deeper.